


secret codes

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Slytherin-Hufflepuff Friendship, and hogwarts AUs, idk i love my OCs, so this happened i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-31
Updated: 2014-07-31
Packaged: 2018-02-11 00:31:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2046180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Slytherin and Hufflepuff friendships aren't exactly forbidden...but they kind of are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	secret codes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheDragonOwl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDragonOwl/gifts).



> yeah so i'm basically just gonna shove my OCs into every single AU i can think of. enjoy!

Their friendship wasn't exactly forbidden or anything, but whenever they were caught chatting to each other, they received dirty looks not only from students from their own houses, but from Gryffindors and Ravenclaws as well. A Hufflepuff and a Slytherin getting along...it just wasn't right.

It was somewhat easier for Kat. Hufflepuffs valued friendship over lots of things, and they were usually more accepting than the three other houses. Ben, on the other hand, was a Slytherin, and his house wasn't nearly as inclusive. He was already a half-blood amongst people who preferred blood purity, and if that was added to the fact that all save one of his friends were in other houses, one could see why he didn't have it as easy as Kat.

Of course, that wasn't always true. Once, during their second year, a bunch of older Slytherins had cornered Kat in a fairly empty hallway and beaten her up physically, and told her to "keep your filthy hands off Capperton." (Which was funny, of course, because both him and Kat were half-bloods.) Ben had sat with her the whole night in the infirmary while some bitter-tasting potion of Madame Pomfrey's painfully mended her broken wrist.

After that, they were careful enough to find empty classrooms, unfrequented corridors, secret passages or alcoves to meet. They sent each other messages through a complicated system of invisibility charms and _Wingardium Leviosa_ from third through fifth year. They stopped when Ben's only Slytherin friend, Rena, suggested doing it by owl. (Of course, she watched with intense satisfaction as Ben's expression turned from one of disbelief to one that clearly stated, 'How can I be such an idiot?')

So every morning, they would receive a letter from each other, written in a simple code: every fifth word of the body composed the actual message. So if something read:

_Our dearest Ben,_  
 _We were just wondering how our little boy's doing. About the trip next summer, we thought you'd like to meet up with your cousins at that place with the library in France. It's late tonight, so we'll be going._  
 _Lots of love,_  
 _Mom and Dad._

it would actually be interpreted as, "how About we meet at the library tonight".

And everyone sitting around each of them just assumed they had overprotective parents (which was very common, especially since the Second Wizarding War had finished).

Rena was also intensely proud of this, because it was her idea. 

"Sooo, library tonight?" she grinned as she read the letter with her head settled on his shoulder and her chin purposefully digging into the bone. He shrugged her head off and scowled at her. 

"Hey, chill." She raised her hands in a sign of surrender. "I'll cover for you. Working ahead for the potions essay or something." 

"We don't have on due." 

"It's Tuesday. We will, trust me." 

* * *

So that night, Ben waited at one of the tables at the back of the library with a blank piece of parchment, notes filled with his lazy scrawl and three books spread out in front of him. 

"So you're actually working?" 

Ben jumped, startled. 

"Merlin's beard, Kat! Don't sneak up on me!" 

Kat shrugged, grinning, and slid into a chair next to her friend. 

"Why are you still taking Potions?" 

"Dunno." Ben shrugged. "Why'd you drop it?" 

"Eh, it's a bit useless. I'd have dropped chemistry if I'd continued in a normal school." 

"Yeah, I guess. Depends on what you want to be." 

 "I dunno. I was thinking maybe...a graphic novelist?" 

Ben gave her a blank look.

"Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding me. One of your parents is a non-magical human being who knows about that stuff, for Merlin's sake!" Kat straightened her yellow and black tie and sat up a bit. "A graphic novel," she began in a much exaggerated Professor McGonagall voice, "is a novel, but it's _graphic_."

"Wow, thanks." Ben's voice was dripping with sarcasm, much more so than usual.

Kat giggled. "You sound like Rena!"

"Okay, how about you try hanging around that maniac twenty-four seven for five-and-a-half years straight, all the while staying entirely sane and non-sarcastic," he retorted in a very Ben-like way.

"Well I was already entirely sane and non-sarcastic." Kat grinned smugly at her friend, who rolled his eyes and readjusted his glasses.

"Wipe that look off your face, Fletcher, and help me with this Potions essay."


End file.
